Aboriginal elders are worried a northern NSW mine will destroy sacred sites but say the project has brought one unintended benefit to the community.
"The common threat of open cut mining in a culturally and environmentally significant area ... has brought our communities together. We are coming full circle," Gomeroi elder Dick Talbot said about Whitehaven Coal's Maules Creek development.
"It's ironic that Whitehaven Coal has been the catalyst for such long overdue change and dialogue, and perhaps finally some reconciliation and understanding of each other and healing between traditional and local land holders and farmers will result," he said on Wednesday.
For weeks environmentalists, farmers and local Aboriginal people have protested against the $767 million mine, saying it will damage a surrounding forest and its sacred Aboriginal cultural and burial sites.
Several activists have been charged after locking themselves to gates and bulldozers, but after days of increased action in January, authorities closed the forest, effectively blocking protesters from entering for fear of fire.
On Thursday morning, the anniversary of the National Apology, Gomeroi elders, Maules Creek landholders and environmentalists will sign an "Aboriginal Cultural Heritage and Environmental Protection Agreement".
"The Protection Agreement will set out the protocols for protecting cultural heritage, lands and water and formalise the ways in which Gomeroi elders and community will come together to protect what is jointly important to them," the groups said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
